Basket Case
by PoeticPerson
Summary: After Kyo looses his temper in public and transforms in the middle of the market, the Sohmas and Tohru are forced to relocate in America. This story takes place after the anime, NOT the manga. YukixTohru and KyoxOC
1. New School

I can't believe we had to switch schools and all the way in America too. Why did we even have to move to this stupid country?" Kyo sauntered angrily down the nearly empty hallway with Yuki and Tohru a few paces behind him. He hated American culture. To be fair, he hated ninety percent of everything in existence.

Yuki spoke up. "I believe it was actually your fault, Kyo." He glanced lazily over toward Kyo whose blood-orange eyes had been fixed onto Yuki into a stare of utter loathing. "It is simply not natural for a young boy such as yourself to throw a public tantrum about leeks in the middle of the market before magically transforming into a cat. We had to leave before the rumors began."

"Shut up you stupid rat!" Kyo snarled at Yuki before dipping his head down in a slouch so his carrot-shaded hair fell over his eyes.

A faint laugh tore through the harsh moment. The boys turned to face Tohru who wore a bright smile on her face despite the cold mood.

"What is it Miss Honda?" Yuki said softly, a puzzled look crossing both of their faces.

"Oh nothing," she replied. "I'm just glad to see you two are still getting along the same way even though we're so far away from home, you know."

Yuki smiled, a subtle laugh escaping his slightly upturned lips. "Thank you Miss Honda."

Kyo blushed and looked away quickly.

"Oh! Here's the office." Tohru checked the sign on the door, secretly thanking her mom for making her learn English, and walked into the office cautiously. The boys trailed closely behind.

There was a lady typing on a computer behind the desk. The little metal sign propped up next to her indicated that her name was Mrs. Hitts.

"Hello Mrs. Hitts," Tohru said brightly.

The lady looked up and grinned. "You three must be our new exchange students from Japan." She glanced at an open binder, running her finger swiftly down the page.

"Tohru Honda," she read and looked up at Tohru. "That must be you."

Tohru nodded and the lady turned to Yuki. "Yuki Sohma."

He nodded, his silver hair slightly catching the light off a nearby lamp and making it glitter like the precious metal it resembled. Tohru could almost hear Mrs. Hitts give a distant sigh before returning her gaze to the sheet.

"And you," she directed her eyes to Kyo. "You must be Kyo Sohma."

Kyo grumbled for a minute before deciding to nod in confirmation.

"Yeah why not read my name last…" Kyo said under his breath as he kicked the carpet with the edge of his sneaker. Yuki shot him a deadly look.

"Here are your schedules." Mrs. Hitts placed three sheets of paper neatly on the edge of her desk. "All your class books will be delivered within the month so for now just borrow the classroom copies. The way our classes work here are on an AB schedule. Every other day you have the same four classes. Now I've tried to make your schedules to your liking but just tell me if you need anything to change!"

The three of them nodded, taking their schedules and skimming them over briefly.

"Everybody is in their A1 class right now. Feel free to roam around the campus for a while if you wish but if that's not your cup of tea, I suggest to hurry off to class."

The three nodded once again before Yuki kindly thanked her and then they walked out the door.

"Give me your schedule Tohru." Kyo held out his hand to her as he stared off at a wall.

Tohru's eyes grew wide.

"I said give it."

She let her eyes close as she laughed lightly at his stubborn behavior and handed him her schedule.

He grabbed hers and placed it next to his as he frantically looked over the two sheets.

"Damn it!" he groaned. "We only have one class together! And it's stupid Biology class!" Kyo shoved the paper back into Tohru's small hands.

"Here, let me compare mine," Yuki said as he put his schedule up next to Tohru's. His eyes grew warmer, despite their chilled amethyst hue, as he read over the paper.

"It looks like we have every class together besides Biology."

"Stupid rat…" Kyo mumbled as he fiddled with the edges of his paper.

Yuki disregarded him. "Miss Honda, it appears we have history for our A1 class. Shall we?"

He gestured toward the staircase to their right as he shot her a delicate grin.

Tohru beamed back as she looked up at Yuki. "I suppose we should get going!" She turned toward Kyo. "Bye! See you at lunch, Kyo!"

She waved goodbye to him as her and Yuki waltzed up the stairs, leaving him stranded in the hall.

Kyo sighed heavily and looked down at his schedule. He had Drama class for A1. He twisted his lips and ran a hand through his orangey hair.

After a long five minutes of thinking, he retired and settled on the floor of the hall, leaning his back against the white brick wall and stretching out his long legs, like the cat he was. He pulled out his schedule and began folding up the edges. He had always stunk horribly at origami, but this was a perfect opportunity for practice, no?

Suddenly he felt a something catch on his foot and not a second later, the air was filled with the sound of toppling books.

He heard a mild groan and looked to the floor beside him to see a young girl around his age lying on the floor next to a mess of scattered notebooks.

Her hair fell in waves around her petite shoulders and despite its natural chestnut hue, was choppily layered with thick, blonde highlights.

"Hey, what's the big idea?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted speaking them. She snapped her gaze around so that her aqua-emerald eyes caught his own. With a quick slip of movement, she changed her position so that she held herself in a composed crouch, not breaking their stare once. Her hazel eyes were nothing short of captivating. The apparent presence of curiosity coated her expression as she ogled over Kyo. She lifted a graceful hand and reached toward him tentatively.

His eyes grew slightly as she took a piece of his hair in her hand and twirled it before letting it fall back into its original place. She let her hand travel slightly to the middle of his face where she proceeded to poke him on the tip of his nose.

She drew her hand away, pulled out a lollipop from her pocket and began to suck on it as she studied Kyo's face. She leaned further in so their eyes were about an inch or two apart. He looked into her gaze, entranced. Her eyes were so much more intense up close. Kyo could see the tiny flecks of topaz diffused through her irises and the deep blue chroma that faded into the sharp malachite that centered and slightly frayed around her pupils.

He felt his heartbeat begin to quicken and the blood rushed to his cheeks. He didn't understand any of this, but one thing he knew for certain: If this girl didn't back away soon he might accidentally transform in front of her.


	2. Cats

The girl leaned in closer so that her nose was almost touching his. He could feel her warm breath against his face. She smelled of artificial strawberry, probably due to the lollipop she was eating at the moment, which she now held in her right hand off to the side as to keep it far from her ever-fluffy hair.

"You're new. We don't get many new people here," she said, tilting her head slightly off to the left and quickly swiping her pink tongue over her bottom lip, collecting any reminisce that the lollipop had left behind.

"What's your name?" she said, her voice airy and light as she stared him down with verdant eyes, drowning him in a sea of glimmering green and gold.

He felt the pleasant, undesired presence of a blush flourish in his cheeks, dousing them with a mild shade of red. His pulse had begun to quicken more efficiently, only to add to his confusion. He had no idea what emotion to express therefore he defaulted to anger as usual.

"Don't ask me stupid questions!" He yelled as he pulled his face away from hers so that he could no longer smell the sweet fragrance of sugar wafting on her breath. His head instantly became clearer.

The girl showed no sign of a reaction to his sudden raging outburst as she inched closer to him again, finally returning the lollipop to her mouth so it hung out like a cheap cigarette. She placed her knees on each side of his hips and scooted closer. Kyo raised his eyebrows, adrenaline coursing through his limbs. What the hell was she trying to do?

The expression she wore was utterly innocent. It was almost as if she had no clue the situation had become any different due to her sitting position. He gulped, trying to control his pulse, as she leaned in closer, her scent hitting him like a brick wall. Closing his eyes, he felt the haze cloud his mind once again.

"Tell me, your name." Her voice was sharp and held a dangerous edge so that the request began to sound like a threat as it echoed in the back of his wandering mind.

He opened his mahogany eyes slightly, not daring to look at her directly. "Kyo," he mumbled. "My name is Kyo."

She gave a devilish grin as she swiped the lollipop out of her mouth, once again, and stood up holding the books that had toppled over on her not but a few minutes ago. "Nice to meet you, Kyo."

She held out a hand towards him and he took it warily, deciding that a snide remark towards this girl wouldn't end well for him.

"I'm Alexandria, you can call me Ally though."

Kyo smiled slightly, relived to have her off of him. He couldn't risk transforming in public again. With the aid of her hand, he stood up and caught sight of something dangling from her left-hand wrist.

"What's that thing?" He narrowed his eyes at the charm and tried to catch it in his hand, which she slapped away tersely.

"It's my lucky charm, you nosy cat."

He gawked at her as if she had just poisoned a child's breakfast cereal, a look of pure astonishment washing over his entire expression. Did she know about the Sohma family curse? Of course not, how could she?

"What did you just call me?"

Ally smirked. "I called you a 'nosy cat', are you deaf?"

He let out a shaky laugh as he ran a hand through his tangerine hair. "Why a cat though?"

The smirk on her lips grew wider as she spoke. "It's what we are."

A look of bewilderment diffused across his face.

Her unwavering expression showed that she hadn't expected him to understand. "It's what we are, my few friends and myself. I think of us as cats, like from the tale of the Chinese zodiac. The cat was an outcast, just like we are. That's probably why we like it so much. As for why I called you a cat, I guess it has sort of morphed into my own version of an honorific."

Kyo blinked, his dark eyes wide and full of something he couldn't recognize. It was somewhere in-between being pissed off and flattered. What was this? Why would this strange girl and her friends randomly call themselves cats? Nothing was making sense to him.

She giggled, churning the stolid air in the room lightly so that it no longer clung to the awkward silence Kyo had created. "Ironically, a few of us have 'cat' names."

With a flick of her wrist, she dipped the lollipop into her mouth and took out the empty white stick, which she then used as a pointer stick to explain her name situation.

"I'm Ally, so they call me 'Alley Cat'."

Kyo couldn't help but smile to himself when he heard her nickname. How cute, she was an 'ally cat'. His grin grew brighter and in attempt to be discrete, he randomly found an extreme interest in the floor's tiling pattern.

She noticed anyways, snickering audibly and making him blush lightly before continuing. "My best friend is Kathryn, we call her 'Kat' or 'Kitty' depending on what we feel like. And Tommy, we call 'Tom Cat'." She smiled proudly. "The rest of them don't have feline names but are all just as strange."

"So you admit you, yourself, are strange?" Kyo said, tucking a hand into the pocket of his khaki cargo pants.

Ally took a confident step towards him. "The strangest."

He smiled wryly as their gazes locked momentarily.

She chuckled softly. "Now let's go to Drama class! I have it A1 also. It's in the MAC building. All the way over there." She pointed through two large, glass doors.

"How do you even know my schedule?" Kyo said, a little louder than he would have liked to.

Her laugh flowed through the air like bitter honey, coming to rest on his face like sticky, cruel reality. "Deductive reasoning, Kyo-kun!"

"Kyo-kun?"

She nodded gleefully as she beamed up at him. "My close friend, Stormi, is an otaku."

Kyo rolled his eyes. "Great."

Ally nudged his side harshly with her elbow. "Shut up, I'm respecting your culture."

An abrupt silence blanketed the moment before they both broke out in a chortle and walked out of the doors, Ally leading an unwilling Kyo toward the MAC.

How on earth was he supposed to survive an American, high school drama class?

* * *

Author's Note:

I just want to say thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed this story! You guys really motivated me to keep writing this! (which was actually pretty difficult considering I had the flu! ^-^) So thank you so much! Okay,I know this chapter was shorter but I'll try and make the next one longer!

Also, if you could please tell me if you'd rather keep on the KyoxAlly story for another chapter or do you want me to begin writing for TohruxYuki, that would be very helpful! ^_^ Thanks again!

~A


	3. Coach

It was so hairy. Kyo couldn't revert his gaze, and he had tried many times, but the amount of hair that rested on this woman's upper lip was astonishing. Also, it was very distracting.

"Now my little chicklings!" the drama teacher bellowed, her fuzzy lip catching the light and making her facial flaws more distinct.

Kyo twisted his eyebrows and pursed his lips at the strange woman. What had she just called them? Chicklings? What the hell was a chickling?

"Buddy up! We will be playing a super duper fun drama game I like to call ' Trust Falls'."

Kyo felt a tug on his shirt and he turned to his left, remembering that Ally had taken occupation of the only seat next to him. "We are going to be partners."

Her tone was light and had a distinct demanding edge. He knew better than to deny her request. For in the fine ten minutes of knowing her, he had decided he would be better off being her friend than an enemy any day.

Kyo got up off his seat and waited for Ally to do the same but she just sat there with a glassy look in her eyes.

"Uh, Ally?" He tried to get her attention but the unfamiliar roll of her name on his tone was unsettling. It almost made him feel scandalous when his heartbeat fluttered with the task of saying her name. He hardly knew her at all. The vowels of the name left a hollow feeling in his stomach.

She got up suddenly as if she had been embarrassingly startled awake from a sweet dream and, with a terse spin of her Converse clad heel, faced Kyo.

Her dazed emerald eyes held a rare type of madness in them as she stared at him through her chocolate, tawny hair. He could see the rosy remains of a blush dancing across her cheeks as she hooked her thumbs into her pockets and proceeded to lean most of her weight onto her right leg. She sighed and ran a hand through her elegantly disheveled hair.

Kyo felt a grin tug his lips as he took in her appearance. She wore the typical school uniform for this academy, a polo shirt and khaki pants, and hid the attire under an oversized black hoodie that slightly hung off her right shoulder.

Her hair was a beautiful mess of gold and brown that fell around her eyes in a graceful chaos of its own. She had one lock hiding her left eye completely. He felt his chest tighten. Maybe if he just reached over…

He let his gaze fall to the floor as the sensation of red flooded his face. What was happening to him? What was he supposed to do?

"Fall for me." Her voice broke the silence in his head like shattering a glass of water. He felt his thoughts spill and completely soak through every part of his mind.

Kyo gaped at her. "Wh-what?" he stammered, falling over his words.

She glared at him, almost bored, and repeated the command. "Fall for me," she said with a quixotic tone.

His eyes remained as wide as if they opened wide enough, they could find an explanation for her words.

She exhaled heavily. "This is a trust fall exercise."

He felt the mental wall of pure idiocy hit him pretty hard as he realized what she meant. Of course she hadn't meant what he had thought. That would have been futile.

Kyo took a few, somewhat hesitant, steps forward and turned so that his back was facing Ally.

"Okay, now just fall back an I'll catch you."

Her voice was reassuring but he felt something tugging at his brain. He felt uncertainty flow through his thoughts. What was he forgetting?

The curse.

Realization dawned on him, shadowing his eyes. If he fell back for her, she would catch him in an embrace and he would transform.

"Kyo, is there something wrong?"

He circled around himself so that he could see her face to face. She was much shorter than him, probably around 5'5 while he was at least 6'1. His eyes dropped down to lock her radiant emerald gaze with his.

"This game is stupid," he said bluntly, agitating his tone so that it had a sour edge that mildly reflected salt on an open wound.

He had expected Ally to resist his sudden urge to disband the game or to complain about how he should "at least try", so he was pleasantly surprised when a devious smile raked across her face instead.

"Yes, it is." She sauntered around to that she was closer to him. She motioned with her index finger for him to come in closer. "I'll fake a sprained ankle. You'll volunteer to take me to the nurse and Voila, we're out of class for the day." As she spoke, an evasive smirk painted itself onto her lips.

It took him a few minutes to realize he was gawking at her. What the little devil she had turned out to be, but he wasn't about to complain.

He smirked back. "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

"Okay everybody, Mrs. Hitts said I needed to introduce the class to our new exchange students from Japan." The history teacher pushed Tohru and Yuki to the front of the classroom. He spoke with a boastful tone and glared as if he were attempting to belittle them with every visible facial muscle. It left an expression that almost resembled a constipated horse.

But it was the metallic object around his neck that caught Yuki's eye. It was a whistle. No doubt this man coached some type of physically brutal American sport. The strained crease in his upper forehead was just piled evidence in that case.

"So, here. Introduce yourselves," the burly teacher said before retreating to his desk and sighing audibly.

Yuki glared at the man momentarily before clearing his throat. "I am Yuki Sohma and this is Tohru Honda." He gestured toward Tohru whose eyes had grown twice their normal size.

A cursory glance at the unkempt, yet somehow still legible, whiteboard gave Yuki the knowledge of this lethargic man's name. "Now, Mr. Gri-"

"Coach," the man corrected.

Yuki's eye gave a slight twitch before he regained his composed mentality. "Yes, of course. Coach Griffith, where are our seats?"

Griffith didn't bother to show any sign of emotion as he gestured toward two

empty seats on opposite sides of the room.

Tohru looked up at Yuki. He could tell she was nervous but she smiled anyways, like always, as she shrugged her shoulders and walked to the nearest empty chair.

Yuki inhaled slowly as he proceeded to saunter towards his own seat. He sat down in the last open desk that was casually disbanded in the corner of the classroom. Clearly these strange Americans had something against the poor desk. What had it ever done to them to deserve this isolation?

He scooted the seat closer to the cluster of desks that resided a few feet to the right of his corner. There. Now it could have some friends.

A slight giggle floated up from the side of his head. He snapped his head around quickly, his platinum hair spiraling, so that he faced the stranger sitting in the nearest desk. His hair landed gracefully over his mauve eyes adding an unintentional intensity to his stare.

There she was, the laughing stranger. She glanced towards him and locked on his gaze. He held a halcyon expression as he took in her image.

Her hair rested on her shoulders in a frayed sweep of midnight black and her dark chocolate eyes held a unique glimmer that he couldn't define. Around her enticing eyes she wore the most extravagant eye makeup he had ever seen. It was bold and contained a genuine intricacy that demonstrated her true artistic talent to anyone who dared to look her way. Lastly, upon the top of her feathered ebony hair, she wore a petite, steam-punk style top hat.

This girl was simply adorable.

Probably noticing his intense glare, she smiled at the entranced Yuki before returning her attention to Coach Griffith, who had begun talking sometime during the last five minutes.

"Okay, now, open your books to chapter thirty-one." He placed a book on Tohru's desk, almost slamming it so the room rattled.

"I want you guys to read it and take notes on it to learn it. The quiz over it will be at the end of class." He walked over and placed the second classroom copy of _World History a true story_ on the edge of Yuki's desk.

Yuki raised his eyebrows. Was this man serious?

Coach Griffith walked away and lazily retreated to his chair again, making a loud squeaking noise as his weight pushed against the barley-stable plastic.

The breath gradually leaked out of Yuki's lungs in a dreaded sigh as he opened the book. The dank aroma of mold spilled across his nose.

He suppressed a gag as he took another deep breath and turned to chapter thirty-one.

* * *

Thank you everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed! It REALLY helps everytime I get a review. It makes me feel like I should write :P so if you like my writing, let me know ^-^ and I'll write more :P

But anyways, hope you liked the switch of POV. Don't worry, the next chapter will have more KyoxAlly in it, I just didn't want to neglect TohruxYuki any longer ;P

Thanks again!


	4. Getting Out

Author's Note: I just want to say, I was going to stop writing this fan fiction but thanks to so many positive reviews and such, I decided to keep writing it for you guys. Hope you like it!

* * *

"I can't believe that actually worked."

"What, you didn't believe me?" She grinned up at Kyo who returned the gesture as they fell out of a run and curled up behind the brick wall surrounding the school.

Kyo's eyes darted around the scene before collecting Ally's bright green gaze in his own. "Do you think they saw us?"

She shrugged and dropped her head back gently against the bricks so that her golden hair spilled across the ruddy hue of the wall. "Who gives a fuck?"

A smile pulled at the edges of his mouth.

Ally rolled her head so that she fell face first onto Kyo. He bit down and felt the blood sliver over his wounded tongue. She was doing it again.

She moved her face up, brushing her nose against his neck before finally propping her chin up on his shoulder so their eyes could meet.

"So what do you want to do? Since you're new, you should try something slightly American."

Kyo took in a stream of air and let it out slowly. "Uh, what do Americans do?"

Her smile went askew as she leaned further into his shoulder. He felt his face go red.

"Other than that, I meant."

A rugged laugh poured from her lips as she closed her eyes and shifted her body so that she could use his lap as a pillow. This time he bit his lip as he felt his eyelids grow heavier.

"What are you doing?"

Kyo's expression went stiff as he glanced down at Ally. "I'm- I was just- I am-..." His words came out in startled fragments until he finally decided on an excuse. "Jetlag!"

She chuckled. "You're such a noobcake."

"I am not!"

With a fluid swing of her torso, she was on her feet again. "Come on kitty, let's get you an All-American Cheeseburger!"

Kyo's stare was tinged with simple curiosity. "What's that?"

"It's food. Disgusting food. But alas, you must try it! Tis a milestone in your life."

He stood up and loitered stolidly by the wall for a lengthy ten seconds before Ally grabbed his hand and began to drag him. "Come on. Let's go."

_In the year 1990, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed off to the public. _

Yuki read over the same sentence for the 15th time. He could feel the frustration build up behind his eyes. He was usually an exceptional student but American school was just so… ridiculous. The teacher expected them to learn all this in one class time by themselves?

He stood up suddenly, not being able to endure another minute of this, and felt the blood rush to his head. "Coach Griffith, may I go to the restroom?"

The bulgy-stomached teacher tilted his head up groggily. "Sure."

Tohru stood up at the sight of Yuki's light-headed expression. No doubt he looked like a train wreck, just maybe a little less pretty.

The little-top-hat girl noticed too and got up from her seat as well.

"Fine, all of you can go. Just don't tell the principle," Coach Griffith as he inched back to his laptop.

Yuki bobbled out of the classroom, trailed by the two girls.

He felt his foot slip against something that wasn't the ground and in a slight moment, the ceiling was the only picture in his vision.

"Ow…"

Tohru gasped. "Yuki! Are you okay? I wanted to catch you but," she paused. "You know... I'm so sorry!" A flustered look spread like wildfire on her expression as she waved her hands back and forth. She looked like a bird having an aneurism.

"Is he alright?"

Tohru and Yuki, despite his recent flounder, turned their heads so that they saw the raven-haired girl inching towards the scene.

"Uh yeah, I'm alright," said Yuki as he got up clumsily and leaned against the wall for better support. His brain was still foggy with a mixture of World history and hopscotching butterfly wagons.

"Who are you?" The words left his tongue without him realizing how blunt they were. He tried to voice an apology but the girl just smiled and held out her hand.

"Well, I'm Stormi. Nice to meet you!"

He took her hand tentatively and shook it as a lukewarm grin spread across his own face. "And I'm Yuki."

The girl giggled. "I know."

His face flushed slightly as he remembered he and Tohru had announced their names to the class. "Oh yeah… right, sorry."

The girl's pocket lit up and was tersely followed by a muted buzzing noise. She reached her hand down and pulled out a phone decked out with charms and adorned with a set of rubber cat ears. With a swipe of her thumb, the screen fully illuminated and she grinned.

"I'm usually not, well I don't really do this sort of thing but do you guys want to come with me? My friend just texted me that her and some other new guy went out for lunch or something and that I could tag along. Wanna go?"

Tohru gave the Stormi girl a perplexed look. Yuki rubbed his head with the back of his free hand.

"What was the name of the boy your friend is with?"

Stormi's lips twisted and she brought down her face to the screen as she typed the question out to her friend.

It only took a moment before she got back a response. She glanced at the screen and snapped her head up, her dark hair striking the air as she turned to face them. "Someone named Kyo."

Tohru gasped. Yuki's eyes widened to a size that would have put golf balls to shame before they slowly deflated into a calmer shade of their royal hue. "Then we shall accompany you Ms. Stormi."

A dazzling smile peeked at her mouth before she whipped around and motioned for the two of them to follow her.


	5. Mustard

"And that's called mustard."

Kyo eyed the oozing yellow paste that was sliming out of the bottle. It smelt tart and seemed to possess qualities that would allow it to glow if the lighting circumstances were different. His stomach turned as Ally squeezed a good portion of the yellow crap onto his plate.

He held back a gag. "And I put it on the Hand Burger?"

"Hamburger," Ally corrected him as she threw more multi colored items in front on him.

"Right."

Kyo gritted his teeth together, fighting the strong feeling of doubt he held against this "American food". He bit his tongue as he sniffed the meal again. Was it still called food if it wasn't edible?

"ALLAAYY!" Kyo's head snapped around to see a short, raven-haired girl running towards them.

Ally's grin widened as she turned to see the girl. "STORMAYYYY!"

They met each other with an unusually awkward embrace as their laughs filled the restaurant. Spectators looked over to see what the commotion was and seemingly ignored them or rolled their eyes as if this was activity of petty idiots.

Kyo's pulse jumped as his eyes darted behind the hugging girls.

"Tohru, Yuki, what are you guys doing here?" He said as he stood up, ungracefully sliding his chair back with a screech.

Tohru smiled. "We were invited. I hope you don't mind."

His first instinct was anger, as he felt the red emotion swell up in his cheeks. But instead he bit his lip and looked down immediately. For some reason, for the first time, he cared what onlookers thought about him. Maybe just one specific onlooker in general. But why?

"It's fine."

Yuki and Tohru grinned as they sat down at the table. Their expressions completely disappeared as they noticed the odd girl across from them, staring at them with an amused look on her face from underneath a shadow cast by golden brown waves.

"Hello," Ally said as she crossed her hands on the table. "You must be the other exchange students."

Kyo looked at her and then back to where she had been standing five seconds ago. How had she moved so fast? Weird.

Stormi settled in the chair besides Ally on the side that Kyo hadn't already inhabited. "Yep. That's them!"

"Well," Ally breathed the word out like a settling smoke. "It's nice to meet you. Sorry for kidnapping your friend."

Yuki laughed airily. "Oh no that's perfectly fine."

His words floated through the air and got heavier against the awkward silence.

"WELL," Ally said after a while. "So tell us about yourselves. Why'd you move here?"

Kyo gulped and looked advertently at Yuki. Tohru fiddled with her long hair, avoiding answering the question.

"It's kind of…well… If I had-" Yuki was cut off by the sound of the restaurant door opening frantically.

"Why didn't I get the invitation?"

Standing there was a very tall girl, no older than sixteen, with short pink hair, eyes like dimmed crystal, and a pissed off expression covering her pixie-like face.

"Olivia!" Ally said, fake elegance coating her voice. "Deary, you were taking a math test. I did not wish to disturb you."

Ally ran up to Olivia and put her elbow on the girl's shoulder, an awkward gesture considering the girl's towering height.

Olivia's expression broke with a slight giggle. "Youre ridiculous Ally."

Ally grinned. "But you love me anyways!" She laughed and skipped off to her seat and Olivia found a place next to Tohru.

"Okay every people, this is Olivia. Olivia, this is Kyo, Yuki, and Tohru. Say hi."

"Hi." Olivia smiled slightly at the full table.

"It's pink," Kyo said as Olivia ran a hand through her vibrant hair.

"Thank you for stating the obvious. I appreciate it," she snapped back, a somewhat nonchalant tone in her voice.

Kyo pursed his lips. "Well, having pink hair is weird."

"Youre a ginger so you really shouldn't be talking about hair color."

"I'm a what?"

"A ginger. You have no soul."

"WHAT?!"

"Olivia! Theyre not from here, theyre not going to understand 'ginger' jokes," Ally said, shattering the childish debate.

She turned around quickly and pointed a finger at Kyo, who was slowly calming down after being called a type of root. "Now, Kyo! Eat your Hamburger!"


End file.
